The third largest electricity supplier in Japan was one of the first major companies in the world that will test a promising technology of bitcoin payments.

Chubu Electric Power Co began work on a proof-of-concept in conjunction with the start-up Nayuta, specializing in bitcoin and the Internet of things (IoT), which explores the making payments via the Lightning Network Protocol, currently under development and promises to speed up payments and reduce costs for users of bitcoin. Chubu uses Lightning to develop a prototype of a new method of payment for electric vehicle charging for customers.

Director General of Chubu Electric Power, Hidehiro Ichikawa (Hidehiro Ichikawa) noted that testing is part of the «marketing research» company as to how bitcoin can satisfy her needs in the IoT. He noted, however, that Chubu there are no official plans for the launch of the Lightning receiving payments from customers.

The President of a startup Nayuta Kenichi Kurimoto (Kenichi Kurimoto) believes that this pilot project demonstrates the interest of the company to use bitcoin for making IoT payments with a Lightning cost-effective way.

«For IoT applications and blockchain required payments in real-time. We have shown that payments of the second level can be an appropriate decision,» he said.

How it works

To demonstrate how Lightning can work for IoT, the two companies connected the Lightning node to the electronic charger and then attached it to the car. In the process also participated Infoteria startup that develops software that created the code test mobile applications for users. After clicking «Send», the app communicates with the charger via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which sends a message and includes a charger.

In testing, they used a bitcoin, but instead test the bitcoin was sent to the private network under the control of the company. The tests were successful, proving that Lightning can indeed implement a small immediate payment for electric vehicle charging.

Press Secretary Nayuta Moriyama, Hitomi (Hitomi Moriyama) said that such a system can be installed once on the usual sites. Users will be able to easily pay for charging a car with bitcoin through a network of Lightning, just as now, she is paid by credit cards.

Representatives of the companies said that the technology is still under testing and development and not planned for implementation in the near future.